Today, Surgical Innovations announces its collaboration with the Centre for Sustainable Healthcare (“CSH”) to support wider efforts in the UK and globally to reduce the environmental impact of plastic waste in surgery.

This new collaboration with CSH will enable the validation of the Company’s environmental messaging and demonstrate the quantifiable cost and environmental savings from a ‘greener’ operating room. This data will then help develop information and training for NHS hospitals and staff as they seek to fulfil obligations on sustainability in the NHS, and follows the publication in October 2020 of the NHS ‘Net Zero’ objective, described more fully in the link below. Surgical Innovations’ range of Resposable™ surgical instruments is designed to provide class-leading quality and functionality, whilst reducing plastic waste by approximately 70% compared to that generated from commonly used competing products. In addition, CSH’s global network will help direct the Company’s efforts to promote the green credentials of its Resposable™ product portfolio to existing and new international partners. The Centre for Sustainable Healthcare is an independent registered charity. Established in 2008, it works to help the NHS fulfil its commitment to reach a ‘net zero NHS’ by 2040. It is now one of the foremost institutions in the world working on sustainable healthcare in research and practice.

Adam Power, Group Development Director of SI, said: “The Centre for Sustainable Healthcare is a leading independent provider of information and training to NHS clinical staff and will be enormously helpful in providing Surgical Innovations with an ethical and rigorous pathway to providing hospitals with the information they need to fulfil the obligations set by NHS England in the recent plan: ‘Delivering a ‘Net Zero’ National Health Service.'(1)”

Rachel Stancliffe, Founder and Director of the Centre for Sustainable Healthcare, said: “We are delighted to be working with the team at Surgical Innovations. Good, collaborative and ethical industry partners are a vital part of transforming our health system for a sustainable future. Medical devices make up a significant proportion of the carbon footprint of hospitals and more sustainable alternatives are urgently needed if we are to meet our targets for reducing environmental impact. SI has developed a practical, accessible alternative to single-use surgical instruments and we look forward to working closely to increase uptake of this and other innovative alternatives.”

(1) https://www.england.nhs.uk/greenernhs/wp-content/uploads/sites/51/2020/10/delivering-a-net-zero-nationalhealth-service.

RNS LINK: here